Ya really gotta love it ... sell for $4 and STILL make money! How? By overcharging on non generics, kinda like what Rite Aid does with asthma inhalers. Pick up a phone, call RA, Walgreen's, CVS,Walmart or Kroeger and ask for their regular retail price. THEN call Costco ... they'll probably beat others 9 out of 10 times ... and they still make money.

3:44 pm April 4, 2008

REVDOC wrote :

It's a shame. Maybe one day what was once a great profession might get out of commodity hell.

3:54 pm April 4, 2008

Mnem wrote :

It really IS a shame. I've been practicing for 37 years, almost all of it in a "corner drug store", and after 8 months at RiteAid, I yearn for a job with an independent.

4:16 pm April 4, 2008

Good ole FRED, Jacksonville,Fl 3225 fred4628@clearwire.net wrote :

Isn't this the greatest thing since Kellog's corn flakes---now my wife and i can afford our prescriptions and who knows--we might have enough left after our last social security raise and the $4.00 bonanza to buy an ice cream cone!!! My wife is 82 and i am 84 and know for sure that there is a Santa Claus.

The best to everyone--keep smiling and have a song to sing!!

4:50 pm April 4, 2008

Jason wrote :

Lamisil was well over $100 a month before it went generic, now its $4

6:21 pm April 4, 2008

Anonymous wrote :

Gosh, I'll get all those nice drugs from China and other countries that make them for us. If they make a mistake or two--or even manufacturer a fake ingredient or two--it will be all nice and cheap.

Trouble is, we cannot sue China and other countries. Wow!. Human life may well be cheap if there happens to be too many mistakes and fake drugs.

4:51 pm April 5, 2008

Adam J. Fein wrote :

The previous comments are not accurate. Pharmacies earn much higher profits from generics. By my calculations, dispensing generics *subsidizes* brands, not the other way around. Supermarkets and mass merchants are merely targeting an area of excess pharmacy profits, to the ultimate detriment of less-efficient pharmacies. You can see my calculations from last October regarding Wal-Mart's $4 generics on my Drug Channels blog:http://www.drugchannels.net/2007/10/wal-marts-gain-is-not-walgreens-pain.html
Regards,
Adam

11:01 pm April 5, 2008

steve z rph wrote :

Have people use thecard.drugassistant.com

discount card for all other meds.

12:02 pm April 6, 2008

Heidi wrote :

Who says they still make money? Do you know many $4 dollar Rx's need to be sold to make a sales day? There are trade-offs to this program. I work as a Wal-Mart Pharmacy technician. I hate the $4 dollar. $4 Rx's = less help behind the counter, overworked, underpaid employees, longer wait times, cheap & demanding custumors, more complaints when something is not $4, more phones to DR offices and never enough help or time to get thing done in the right way. Not to mention the increased possibilty of mistakes due to the fact that adequate help and equipment is not provided in all facilities to meet the increase in Rx volume & not enough $$ is taken in to pay for these needs. In my opinion this is why health care for profit is unethical.

7:34 am April 7, 2008

Concerned Pharmacist wrote :

Its amazing what individuals will do to safe a dollar. Supporting a "lost leader" strategy while stopping on the way for a $4 cup of coffee at Starbucks. Simply crazy. I was never a fan of Walmart's business pratices before this program, but as a educated consumer, I would gladly pay to support quality service to a company that will not sell out the very community they claim to support. Buyers beware!

9:27 am April 7, 2008

Anonymous wrote :

Just a piece of information for all.
The drug companies cannot reduce their prices to any plan more than the contract with the giovernment/DOD. So, from there, profits at reatil go primarily to the retailer based on how they set their margins, and to the insurance companies based on the "rebates" they contract for with the pharma companies. You get what you pay for and the insurance companies rarely get attacked as often as the pharma companies. Since when was it a crime to actually run a business in this country?

1:53 pm April 7, 2008

Against Misinformation wrote :

The comment posted by "anonymous" on April 7th is wrong. Drug companies can reduce their prices below what they charge the government. It just means they will have to honor the same price with the government. As to who is making the most money off brands, the margins on brands is retail pharmacy is small to negative whereas the margin for pharmaceutical manufacturers on brand drugs ie enormous, regardless of how you view it. Just look at the financial statements of these two industries.

9:02 pm April 7, 2008

Efficiency wrote :

why cant these fixed dose/fixed amount $4 prescriptions be prepackaged in blister packs like in other countries. cut out the pharmacy tech completely. waste of time, money and too many chances for mistakes.

1:08 pm April 8, 2008

Heidi wrote :

Efficiency...alot of them do come in prepackaged blister packs. You can't save money by cutting out techs, since they do most of the work for about 1/4 of the pay of a pharmacist. All the Rph does is check the rx and put it the bag and give control copies, techs do the rest. So if you want a Rph to do everything it will cost a lot more money. There is more a process to filling an rx than you seem to think.

2:49 pm April 8, 2008

Rx Guy wrote :

1) Cutting out the pharmacy is a bad idea, these drugs do require expertise in identifying drug/drug, drug/disease interactions... and which ones are important enough to contact the physician about. Think of the pharmacist as the last line of defense for their customers.
2) From my experience in this industry, I feel comfortable stating that profits for brand drug sales do primarily go to the manufacturer. There is no crime in that, the fodder for discussion is the amount of profit and its sustainability for the US economy and its relative fairness.
Drug pricing is done with a global perspective; prices can be adjusted daily relative to competing products in "open market" countries. So in essence, the US market is subsidizing the EU, Canada and other closed market countries by our relatively high brand prices.
--While that may be "good" from some perspectives, one needs to remember that on the flip side, generic drugs are generally more expensive in those countries than here in the US markets.
The take home message is that you cannot tackle the issue from just the brand side, it is a much more complex question than that.

3)There are mark-ups by distributors and retailers. Retail pharmacies typically run on a fairly low margin from their pharmacy business, they generally run higher margins off of the stuff in front the counter, OTC meds, knick-knacks, other retail items (the so-called front-end). Pharmacies do make a substantial amount of their profit off generic, but that subsidized that pharmacy's position (break-even or loss) relative to their brand business... it doesn't subsidize the brand manufacturer.

For me, I think this is generally a good thing, so long as there are not excessive compensatory mark-ups on other products in these stores, and as long as the consumer uses a single pharmacy for their purchases. If not, the interactions software will be working off incomplete information, and that could result serious health consequences.

3:45 pm May 11, 2008

Robert Higgins wrote :

Reference Generic Prescription list for Fred Meyer. Two prescriptions are not listed on the list.
You list Carbamazepine 200 mg tab but not the 100 mg tab. Paraxetine 10 and 20 mg tabs are listed, but not 40 mg.
Why are some listed but not all of the same generic name?

9:42 pm May 26, 2008

kathleen lowman wrote :

How much would it cost to get vytorin at costco. thank you, k

2:30 pm May 30, 2008

Lily Waterhouse wrote :

I’ve seen ads on TV for Caduet. It has two ingredients. One is Amlodipine and the other is Atorvastatin. With my RxDrugCard I can get 30 tablets of Amlodipine for $9 and 30 tablets of Simvastatin for $9. I’ll bet they are charging more than $18 for this new drug! Don’t pressure your doctor into giving you something just because it’s new. Do your homework. Find a drug card like I did at http://www.rxdrugcard.com. I think that RxDrugCard.com is the best drug card available for prescription discounts.

2:12 pm June 28, 2008

Lisa wrote :

Spend the $50.00 for a 1 year membership to Costco. You'll save WAY more than that on your prescriptions! I bought 14 generic antibiotics at CVS for 12.99. (I only went there because I needed to start taking them fast & Costco pharmacy closes at 7:00) I needed more, so the dr. gave me a 'script for 60 more. I paid $12 and some change for them at Costco! Unless it's an emergency, I never go anywhere else, regardless of how far away I have to park or how crowded they are.

7:44 am August 25, 2008

nettie nash wrote :

cvs.is just to high that is why i'am trying to get the card so i can get my prescriptions fill with you all.thank you very much sign nettie nash

4:02 pm February 5, 2009

klo wrote :

At medtipster.com, you can search for the low-cost alternatives to your prescriptions. By simply entering prescription drug name, dosage and zip code, you will be provided with a list of $4 drugs and other discount generic pricing information for your prescriptions available at pharmacies in your neighborhood.

8:53 pm May 19, 2011

lOTRIL 5 wrote :

WILL THIS DRUG BE AMONG THE ONES CONSIDERED SINCE YOU FAILED TO LIST ALL THE DRUGS

8:54 pm May 19, 2011

Anonymous wrote :

tHIS IS A TIPICAL LIBERAL NEWS EVENT

8:58 pm May 19, 2011

Anonymous wrote :

i LOVE THE COMMENTS, BUT WHERE ARE THE ANSWERS? Obama here we go!!! His idea is to get rid of the elderly and save the the lazy

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